Christopher Walken Returns To Stratford For A Chat On His Career, Shakespeare

Actor Christopher Walken was recently honored by The Stratford Center for the Arts and Stratford Arts Commission as a Distinguished Returning Alumnus to the American Shakespeare Theatre for his contribution towards Bringing the Arts Back to Stratford. After the theatre visit, Walken answered questions on stage from the Courant's Frank Rizzo at the at Stratford's Scottish Rite Theatre. (Andrea Wise, Special To The Courant)

FRANK RIZZO, frizzo@courant.comThe Hartford Courant

Oscar-winning actor Christopher Walken looks out from the sweeping stage of the former American Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford and envisions "big plays, musicals, opera, even rock concerts here."

The Wilton resident was returning Sunday to the now-shuttered, empty theater on the Housatonic River overlooking Long Island Sound where 31 years ago he starred in "Hamlet" and "Henry IV, Part I."

"I was afraid the theater was going to look decrepit and run down but it's not at all," he says. "It has good bones."

He would like to return to perform at the theater again, he says, perhaps playing a role he's wanted to do for a long time: Prospero in "The Tempest."

It may take a while. Walken's 1982 two-show season was the final flourish for the theater, which over the past three decades has gone through a series of failed development deals. The theater is now owned by the town, which hopes to have performances on the site again, first with a temporary outdoor stage on the grounds in August and later on a more permanent basis with a renovation to bring the theater up to code under its new local not-for-profit organization.

But those are long-term goals and right now the effort is to raise consciousness — and funds — for the theater by bringing back performers who played the theater. Last month Ed Asner did a fundraiser and Sunday it was a sold-out "A Conversation with Christopher Walken" at the nearby Scottish Rite Theatre in Stratford.

A candid, playful Walken, who turns 70 next month, talked about his season at Stratford and his own career that spans more than 60 years, starting when he was a child actor on television in the '50s. Walken, who grew up in Astoria, Queens, the son of a baker, told stories of the time he was a lion tamer, of dinner with Noel Coward, how chanteuse Monique van Vooren gave him his stage name, why his contracts stipulate he doesn't have to ride horses and what he thinks of all those Christopher Walken imitations.

On the lion taming gig: He was a teenager and he saw an ad for a lion tamer's assistant in a one-ring circus that was touring upstate New York. "I got the job. But there probably wasn't that many applicants."

The head lion tamer would finish his act and lead the largest lions out of the cage, "but he would leave this one old lioness named Sheba. I knew her very well. She was like a dog. She would come and bump herself against you. She was just a nice big old lion. And she would sit on a box and I would come in dressed just like [the head lion tamer] and take my whip and say, "Up, Sheba, up!' And she would try to get up and then go [imitating weakly] 'Grrrrr,' And that was it.'

On his name change: "Monique was very beautiful Belgian chanteuse who also happened to have a doctorate in something. I was in a nightclub act [in the early '60s] and was one of three guys who danced in back of her. At the end of the act she he would introduce us and one day she said to me, 'You know I don't like the name Ronald [his given name]. I will call you Christopher. And I said 'OK.' "

On Noel Coward whom he met when he was in the chorus of the 1964 musical High Spirits: "He was very nice man. Very amusing. On the first day of rehearsal, he was very elegant with a coat over his shoulders, and he walked up and down the chorus line and shook hands with everyone. I had on my dance clothes and I had on a bright red T-shirt. When he got to me he said, [imitating the sophisticated Coward] 'Interesting shirt.' And I said. 'Yes…it's …red.' After a long pause he said, 'Well, its been an exciting day for us all."

On his memorable roles as troubled characters: He said his brief appearance as the psychopathic brother of Diane Keaton in "Annie Hall" "got me going playing disturbed people. Right after that came 'The Deer Hunter' where I played a character who shot himself in the head. So I I think I got a troubled person thing going then. Troubled. I've always been troubled. But I try to be as silly as possible."

On his contract rider: "I made enough westerns that I have in my contract that I'll never go on a horse again. I'm afraid of them. They don't like me. Cats I'm fine with but horses, well, I don't want to say anything bad about horses but I know why I don't like them but I just don't want to say." For his role as the Headless Horseman in "Sleepy Hollow," "director Tim Burton said don't worry, I have the perfect solution. In the film 'National Velvet,' there was this famous robot horse' and he got that for me. When I asked him what made it go, he said, 'Eight midgets.' So that was my horse."

On performing Shakespeare: When he started his career as a dramatic actor he said Shakespeare intimidated him. When asked what got him through it, he said, "I look good in tights." When asked about the two times he played Hamlet, he said, "I wasn't good. I wasn't good as Romeo either [which he played three times]. But I was good a couple of times.. I was OK as Iago [in 'Othello']. I was pretty good in' Coriolanus.' And as the nasty brother in 'The Tempest.' There's a few roles that suited me."

Of his best imitators: "Kevin Spacey, Jay Mohr, Kevin Pollak. Usually when people do [the imitations] I don't know what's happening. I wonder, 'Why are you talking ..like…that?' But then I go, 'Ohhhh.'

On seeing an old kinescope of himself as a 10-year-old boy performing on television: "It was amazing. I haven't changed one bit since I was 10. My voice, my look, everything. It was like a little me. Maybe we don't change as much as we think."